Assembly panel to meet on NJ Transit

A state Assembly transportation committee has rescheduled a hearing on NJ Transit’s recent problems — from the flooding of its trains during Superstorm Sandy to the stranding of customers at MetLife Stadium after the Super Bowl — for 10 a.m. Monday in Trenton.

But NJ Transit officials will not be attending, the agency’s new executive director told committee Chairman John Wisniewski in a letter.

Veronique "Ronnie" Hakim said she shares the committee’s concerns and wants more time to review the agency’s performance before providing testimony. "I respectfully request reasonable time so that I can be in a position to provide the committee with meaningful testimony," Hakim wrote.

She added that her boss, state Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson, has directed the NJ Transit board to conduct an evaluation of the agency’s handling of transportation during the Super Bowl.

The hearing comes amid dramatic and fast-moving changes in the upper management at NJ Transit. Former Executive Director Jim Weinstein stepped down last month. He had been widely criticized for the agency’s decision to leave nearly 400 pieces of rail equipment in low-lying rail yards during Sandy.

The Christie administration moved Hakim, who was executive director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, to replace Weinstein. Sources close to NJ Transit say other leadership changes are happening internally, but with great secrecy.

A spokesman for the Assembly Democrats’ office has not released a list of witnesses for Monday’s hearing, but says the hearing will go forward.

The hearings are scheduled for 10 a.m. and will be streamed live at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/media/live_audio.asp.